H4cK3r (Hacker)
by OnLorakeetWings
Summary: Things quickly become complicated after one of Merlin's social networking accounts is hacked—he gets stood up, and his boyfriend, Arthur, won't answer his phone. Something is amiss, and if Merlin's not careful, it will reveal one of the darker chapters of his past... Merthur, AU, probably OOC, the usual stuff. B-day giftfic for TabbyCat33098!
1. Chapter 1

Hey, lovelies! I know, I know, I should be updating _Pinky Promise_, but this is a little (for now, it's little) birthday present for one of my very best internet-friends **TabbyCat33098**. Tabby-chan—you're _amazing_ and _insane_ and introduced me to _Merlin_ and I totally love you and so here's a big ol' _social-networking-aspect_ _Merthur_ fic all for you! Thank you so much, and I hope you like it! ^_^ Okay, now for the rest of you. Yes, this is Merthur and yaoi and might end up being sexual, but I'm not completely sure. Note to Haters—look at all the shits I give: …Oh wait.

Extra stuff: This is AU, has a social-networking/internet aspect, and is unbeta'd. Yay me. Also, because of aforementioned interwebs aspect, lingo (that I know of) will be used. If you have no idea what I'm trying to say, Google is your friend. Let me know if I'm doing something wrong, 'cuz I don't actually know how to hack anything, which is probably for the better… Finally, they aren't exactly British in this. I know, blasphemy, but I just can't write in such a foreign setting—sorry.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the trademarked websites/companies/anything mentioned in this fic. This goes for all the chapters in this fic, and everything having to do with it.

Okay, on with it! Hope you like it, Tabby-chwan, and behold—_**H4cK3r (Hacker)**_!

* * *

H4cK3r—Chapter 1

Merlin chuckled at his Tumblr dash for what seemed like the billionth time that afternoon. A certain RL friend of his, excalibers-a-kitchen-knife (*ahemARHTURahem*) seemed to be finding all the best AvengingSuperWhoLock today. Almost on cue, His IM dinged , flashing a message bubble in the bottom right hand corner of the monitor. Unsurprisingly, it was a certain Arthur Pendragon.

P3ndr4g0n: _Merlin! ^w^_

_Hah,_ Merlin chuckled mentally, _Definitely Arthur._ He began typing.

AureusOculus47: _hey Arthur :)_

P3ndr4g0n: _How've you been? :D_

AureusOculus47: _lol good missing comicon tho. u?_

P3ndr4g0n: _Haha, same. We met there, so how could I NOT miss it? xD_

AureusOculus47: _lol good pt :)_

Merlin sighed in reminiscence. It had been years ago, yes. They'd met in line for an Avengers panel when a Homestucker in cosplay had strolled by. Merlin showed his exasperation whilst Arthur had nearly applauded her. The latter had called the former an idiot, and they had bickered for a while, eventually getting kicked out of the panel. With that, they swapped social networking info, and the rest is history.

Well, most of it.

During the most recent convention, Arthur had requested a date, and after hitting it off, the two had been romantically involved ever since.

Yeah, they were dating, and a damn good match at that.

P3ndr4g0n: _Heh, yeah._

P3ndr4g0n: _How would you feel towards dinner tomorrow evening, and a movie-and-cuddle at my place? ;)_

Merlin grinned, responding as fast as his fingers could type (pretty fast).

AureusOculus47: _id love too! What time_

P3ndr4g0n: _*to_

AureusOculus47: _2?_

P3ndr4g0n: No, 'to.' You were supposed to use 'to' instead of 'too.'

Merlin frowned.

AureusOculus47: _oh grammar again. never understood it_

P3ndr4g0n: _I can see that. :3_

AureusOculus47: _-_-_

P3ndr4g0n: _Haha, just kidding! xD 3_

AureusOculus47: _3 :)_

The dark-haired nineteen-year-old smiled again. Arthur had a weird sense of humor. Actually, their relationship was just weird in general—they tended to have mini play-fights quite regularly, much like the one that eventually led to their exchange of information. Who knew that calling each other stupid would make for such an excellent stress-reliever (and warrant _really_ good "make-up" sex)?

AureusOculus47: _but srsly when?_

P3ndr4g0n: _Ah, whenever's fine. Hell, we can meet now, if the mood strikes you. xD_

AureusOculus47: _lol ill b there in an hr~ gaius's okay?_

P3ndr4g0n: _Heh, yeah! See ya! 3 ^_^_

They both signed off (Arthur went first), and Merlin decided to watch an episode of Mer—I mean, Supernatural, 'cause _damn,_ Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are attractive. (A/N: What? They are.) But anyway, the pair met up at a nice little place in the Uptown called "Gaius's." The owner, Gaius himself, had always been like a father to the two boys, especially after he learned they were dating—he knew how hard it must have been, and support is not something you can have too much of.

Anyway, after they had eaten their food and bade Gaius a quiet farewell along with a promise to return soon, they popped over to the second-run, dollar-fifty theater across the street. A bunch of movies from a few weeks ago were showing, but nothing too eye-catching that they hadn't already seen.

Still standing in front of the listings, Merlin heard Arthur sigh. "Anything interesting?"

Merlin frowned. "Not really, no…You?"

Arthur chuckled once, his voice growing soft and quiet. "I've god surround sound at home…and popcorn…and a bed—"

Merlin jumped. "What?"

"I said I've got surround sound—"

"After that."

"Oh. I have popcorn too."

Merlin's face lit up. "Oh, God, popcorn! We're going, end of story." He winked at his boyfriend, acknowledging that they were both kidding.

_Tonight will be a fun time indeed,_ Merlin thought happily.

* * *

Well, that's just the first chapter, darlings. It gets more interesting, I promise. Kind of. At least, it's more interesting to me xD Heh. Should be great though—first Merthur, no, _BBC _fanfic I've ever written, so I'm taking a serious crash-course in writing again. It's almost completely different than anime-fanfic-writing. Yeah. So now you have to review and tell me how I'm doing. Yeah. You should go do that now, loves! ^_^ xD

Ta,  
Lorakeet~


	2. Chapter 2

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "oh God, Nerdsy updated less than six weeks after previous chapter WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER" But it's okay, I haven't been taken over by demons, Slovenians, goblins, or the like. I think. Not sure though, ha. Welp, here's the next chapter! Sorry, it's gonna be kinda short, but still—enjoy your Merthur! ^o^

* * *

H4cK3r—Chapter 2

Merlin and Arthur settled in for their movie, watching and making jokes and, yes, eating popcorn.

Kind of.

Okay, not really.

About forty-five minutes into the movie, a certain dark-haired someone got a little, well, excited.

Needless to say, when the pair woke the next morning, they were extensively sore in all the wrong places (for the obvious reasons), but still warm and cuddly-cozy.

Merlin stirred slightly, noticing Arthur's previously-awakened, though distracted state, and leaned over to kiss his boyfriend's smooth shoulder. "What're you thinking about, Mr. Pendragon?"

The blonde snorted. "I'm not sure you want to know…"

Merlin made a face, looking at him with a quirk in his lip. "Uh, yeah I do. I always do, you know that."

Arthur sighed. "Not this time…"

Merlin chuckled shortly, frowning. "If you say so…"

Everything was quiet for a few minutes, which was fine. Merlin figured he could use them for extra sleep. But just as he was slipping back into dreamland, Arthur spoke. "Okay, fine, I'll tell you. Just…don't get mad, or all possessive and shit. I can't control my thoughts.

"Um…okay…"

"Ah…" Arthur started, "I was thinking about…my ex…"

The crease between Merlin's eyebrows deepened. "Which one?"

"Alex."

"Oh, Mr. Internet."

"Yeah…" Arthur's mouth twitched. "Did you know he was a hacker?"

"Wait, really?" Merlin only sounded so surprised.

"Heh, yeah. I'm pretty damn glad I broke up with him…"

"Ah, so am I…" His tone was almost dark, almost.

That was because he was sure Arthur didn't understand the entirety of the truth he had just spoken.

—

A few days passed, lighthearted and fast. Arthur no longer mentioned any ex-boyfriends, and Merlin didn't ask. That was it. They were happy.

Plans were quickly made for another few dates between them, like bowling, shopping, and other little things like that—the most recent of which being dinner at Merlin's apartment and a Doctor Who marathon to follow (with obvious cuddling).

In the middle of this marathon (and cuddling) though, Arthur's phone buzzed on the end table. Extracting his arm from behind Merlin's waist, he reached across his boyfriend to grab it off the end table. When he read the name displayed on the screen (A/N: They both have iPhones or Androids or something touchscreen and expensive I think) he hummed an exasperated sigh. "Oh, lookit that. It's Dad. Be back in a sec."

He stood carefully, stretching and unlocked his phone, answering it. "Dad? What's up?"

Merlin, still engrossed in the show (major fanboy), noncommittally asked "What does he want?

His boyfriend frowned. "Huh. He wants me to drop by his place, something to talk to me about. He wouldn't say though."

That shook the dark-haired boy. "Now?" He was very nearly whining.

"'Fraid so. I'm pretty sure it's urgent, otherwise he would've just texted, or called me when I got home."

Merlin cursed under his breath and stood as well, walking his boyfriend to the door. "Fine, I'll let you go _this_ time."

"You say that every time, silly."

"Oh, shut it. We on for Saturday's picnic?

"Of course! Message me the details, and I'll probably even remember to make those sandwiches you like."

"_Yes._"

"Heh, you and your food obsessions…"

They kissed delicately for a moment, but as it was quickly becoming more and more heated, Arthur ended it before it could go anywhere—they both knew how pissed Arthur's father would be if his son was an hour late _again_ for "unknown" (undisclosed, yet obvious) reasons.

The blonde pressed one last peck to Merlin's lips, then left with a quiet reminder to text him the details of their next date, and a slight breeze from the open-and-closed door. Leaning against that door, he whipped his own cellular out and sent Arthur the following: _hey ;) picnic 1:30p woodland park. c u thn 3_

Right away, clearly before he had even begun driving, Arthur shot him a response: _You must really want those sandwiches… xD_

Merlin chuckled, replacing his phone in his pocket. With that, he returned to the living room and fell back to the couch, sighing at his moderately-sized flatscreen. "Okay, Matt Smith. It's just you, me, and the Ponds now…"

He spun the volume dial on his crappy remote, sending it almost as high as it would go, and thought about the Eleventh Doctor, the beautiful Arthur Pendragon, and his own not-so-pretty past.

* * *

Well, I hope that was long enough. 1:45am, so I think I'm going to fall over (whilst sitting down) if I don't go upstairs and GO TO SLEEP NOW. Love you guys, thanks for reading! ^_^

Ta,  
Lorakeet~


	3. Chapter 3

Hey kiddos! School's being boring, plus it's been a while, so I thought I'd work on an update. It's been a little too long for my taste already, so yeah xD Here's Chapter 3 for ya~ ^_^

* * *

H4cK3r—Chapter 3

When Saturday finally came along, Merlin was humming happily, making fruit salad and lemonade and other picnic-y foods. He piled them in a small cooler and drove, whistling, over to Woodland Park, which was where they had planned to meet. Merlin didn't see Arthur's silver Audi (the guy was practically a prince, with all his money) in the lot when he pulled up, so he slumped back into his seat, just breathing. He was definitely excited to see Arthur again; that was one thing that they had never lost in their relationship, and seeing as it was probably one of the best things not to lose, they were definitely doing just fine.

Anyway, Merlin waited around for a few more minutes in his car, still not seeing Arthur anywhere. His eyes flicked to the clock on the dash, and frowned. 1:38 PM. Digging his phone out of his pocket, he began to worry. C'mon Arthur, he thought in earnest, You're never this late...

Quickly, a basic "wher r u" message was thumbed out and sent to Arthur's cell phone.

Ten minutes trudged past, then twenty as no response came. Over the course of an hour, actually, several more texts were sent with varying levels of worry that steadily escalated into anxiety. Merlin even called a few times. Still no answer. No texts, no calls, hell, no PMs. Nothing.

Then, "watch it, Sanity" slowly became "Oh my God, where is he?", and finally, Merlin had had enough. Arthur wasn't coming. That was it.

He'd been stood up. End of story.

Merlin looked back at the small cooler he had gently placed in the backseat of his Mazda. Sighing, he stabbed his key in the ignition and drove home dejectedly, probably to watch something fandom-related, play some kind of MMO, Tumbl, or just something to get his mind off his stomach, those yummy sandwiches, and his even yummier boyfriend

—

He did end up watching TV—marathoning Series One of BBC Sherlock and drowning his sorrows in hot chocolate. Sherlock, with all its hot guys and deep thinking, never failed to let Merlin get away from even the worst of his troubles.

But amongst all the deducing, Merlin slouched lazily into the next room to yank his laptop (NOT a Mac) off the charger. He felt like checking his social sites. Like, all of them. Dashes, feeds, inboxes, pages, walls, boards—the whole deal.

Wait, I take that back, he thought, I think I'll just check my emails, then look around on Twitter for a while. Yeah.

That was it. Facebook was too old, Tumblr was too addictive (and feels-inducing), the Pintrest layout bugged him, MySpace didn't really exist anymore, 4chan was essentially just porn, and nothing else really made sense. So, email and Twitter it was.

For a second though, he was taken completely aback in the best way by the sheer amount of implied 'Sherlock-and-John-are-gay-for-each-other', aka Johnlock, and watched all the wonderful on-screen "not gay"-ness. But then he went back to his Interwebs activities.

Email was boring, as always, not much more than spam, ads, and the occasional story or webcomic update. And once all that was over and done with, Merlin pulled up his Twitter feed and started skimming.

He quickly became bored, which was no surprise, and glanced at his notifications. There was a fair number of posts in which he was mentioned and/or tagged, and he responded accordingly. Merlin also glanced back at previous conversations with his followers, and noticed that his most recent talk with Arthur was first on the list, from yesterday.

He himself hadn't been on Twitter in two weeks at the very least.

Frowning, Merlin clicked the convo. Something was amiss, he could tell. Sure enough, the next webpage wasn't found, claiming a broken link. _Ha_, Merlin snickered mentally, _Likely story._

His eyes flicked to the door and back to his screen, satisfied that no one would barge in once his activities stopped being strictly-speaking legal. Fingers flying, he logged out of his Twitter and pulled up his quick HTML guide. From his Chrome browser, Merlin keyed in a backdoor code and had bypassed most of Twitter's better firewalls in little more than a few minutes. He dodged bits of programming that were bound to be troublesome, and rewrote a few things that he knew the admins would thank him for later. He was all-too-familiar with Twitter's inner workings.

After all, it's not like he hadn't hacked into them before.

Soon, and by soon I mean less than ten minutes later, Merlin had found "his" conversation with Arthur. He hyperlinked it to another address, somewhere not even close to Twitter that he could just dispose of right after he was finished with it.

Sighing, he closed out of the browser and deleted the Internet history, then erased the same information from the hard drive as well (of course he could do that).

He opened the link in Firefox the change things up and scanned the conversation between Arthur and the person who was pretending to be Merlin.

It started out just wrong.

'Merlin's Beard: _p3ndr4g0n Hey Arthur! How are you? ^_^_'

Right there, Merlin was positive he hadn't been the one typing that message. Such an amateur mistake, really. If the hacker had actually read up on some of Merlin's other Tweets to get Merlin's writing style down, then they would have found that Merlin never used perfect punctuation and grammar if he could help it—or more specifically, if there was a character limit.

Rubbing his eyes, Merlin yawned, stretching comically, and got up to go make something warm to eat or drink.

Because he was in the kitchen, Merlin didn't see a different programming window pop up and delete the Tweets, the webpage, and everything on Merlin's screen from view.

* * *

Okay, here's this. Sorry it's been so long. RL has gotten in the way. I literally have four days of school left—exams. Wonderful. But yeah, there's also this thing I'm horrible at called updating. Yep. Terrible at it. but here's this. Also—sorry I'm so horrible about cliffies. Hashtag-actually-not-sorry.

Ta,  
Lorakeet~


End file.
